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From: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" 
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Subject: Re: Hmmmm, Where is the floppy drive in XP?
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2017 15:57:37 +0000
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In message , 
gfretwell@aol.com writes:
>On Tue, 14 Nov 2017 06:27:43 -0600, james@nospam.com wrote:
>
>>I'm not used to having a floppy drive on an XP machine.
>>I plugged in a NEW floppy drive, which I just got in the mail. I used
>>that twist cable which I mentioned. (twist on drive end), and connected
>>the power cable. Everything is plugged in properly.
>>
>>I am not seeing the A: drive in My Computer.
>>
>>I am not sure where else it should show up.
>>
>>I confirmed this drive works by plugging it into the existing cables
>>connected to the internal floppy drive and it works fine. I read, wrote
>>and formatted a floppy.

To clarify: your computer already had a floppy drive, and connecting the 
new drive in its place, works. So how are you connecting it when it 
_doesn't_ work, presumably with the (new?) cable-with-a-twist you 
mention? To the same place on the motherboard as the existing one? If 
the existing one has a cable with no twist, which side of the twist are 
you connecting?
>>
>>In XP, I went to control panel, hardware, and I can see the floppy
>>listed. It says it's working fine.
>>
>>I went to the command line, and typed A:
>>It says "Invalid drive specification".

Even with a (formatted OK) floppy in?
>>
>>The only thing I can think is that maybe that cable is defective???
>>
(Possibly, though I'd have thought it wouldn't show in control panel. 
Does it show a drive letter there [I presume you mean Device Manager]? 
Does it show a drive letter for C: there?)
>
>5 wire twist or 7 wire twist?
>Do you have the power cable plugged it?
I did wonder that too (-:

>Did you boot the machine?
>Does it spin on the boot?
Good question: many BIOSes have a setting for whether it should try the 
floppy on boot; turning it off saves time (and arguably wear on the 
drive, though minimal). Though if there's something about that setting 
that's stopping it working, I'd have expected it to stop the existing 
one working, hence the question re how you're connecting the new one.

Does its light flash - on boot? When you try to access it? At any other 
time?
-- 
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

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